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Migrant workers build hopes on dry land

Larantuka: The port is the main gateway for migrant workers hailing from East Flores

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak (The Jakarta Post)
East Nusa Tenggara
Sun, April 26, 2015

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Migrant workers build hopes on dry land

Larantuka: The port is the main gateway for migrant workers hailing from East Flores.

Two things are currently trending in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT): Mohawk haircuts with blonde highlights '€” a la Italian soccer player '€œSuper Mario'€ Balotelli '€” and brick houses.

Brick houses with ceramic tiles have started to adorn neighborhoods, previously dominated by thatched houses with dirt floors in the province.

'€œThe owners of brick houses are either PNS or TKI,'€ said Maria Fatima Buimau, a resident of Lamaknen in Belu, NTT.

'€œPNS'€ refers to civil servants, while '€œTKI'€ is an acronym for Indonesian migrant workers, many of who in Belu have been repatriated by Malaysia for working illegally in the neighboring nation.

According to the local administration, about 3,000 people from 69 villages in the regency leave for Malaysia every month without authorization '€” compared to the 300 who left through formal procedures in 2014.

High demand for temporary workers on oil palm plantations in Malaysia, a lack of local employers and poor education are behind the labor exodus.

The path to legal work outside Indonesia is tortuous for Belu residents. Formal contracts usually last two years and are not extended.

For re-entry, applicants must reapply, first seeking approval from their subdistrict head or village chief, who will verify their documents, as well from recruitment agencies.

Home sweet home: Maria Fatima Buimau poses in front of her half-brick home the family built from what her husband earned as a migrant worker in Malaysia. JP/Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak
Home sweet home: Maria Fatima Buimau poses in front of her half-brick home the family built from what her husband earned as a migrant worker in Malaysia. JP/Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak

There are also interviews at the local manpower agency, who approves successful applicants for a medical checkup at a provincial hospital.

Recruitment agencies will then seek reference letters from employers for the applicant to obtain a passport and work visa '€” but the immigration office for people in Belu is in Kupang, the provincial capital, a six-hour drive away.

Regulations then require would-be migrant workers to attend a briefing from the provincial Agency for Placement and Protection of Migrant Workers (BP3TKI), which will hopefully give its OK for the people to leave the country '€” after the applicant undergoes training in Bandung, West Java; Jakarta, or Medan, North Sumatra.

The length of training depends on the authorized destination countries, which for NTT are Malaysia, which requires 200 hours of training; Singapore (300 hours) or Hong Kong (400).

Male applicants must be at least 18 to work legally in those countries, while women must be at least 21 for Malaysia, 22 for Singapore or 24 for Hong Kong.

'€œEmployers in Singapore and Hong Kong in general request better skilled workers as caregivers,'€ Famelianus Lepangkari, the head of training and worker placement at the Social, Manpower and Transmigration Office in Belu regency, said.

'€œThe official procedure may take three to four months to complete and this contributes to a mire of problems that we have trouble getting out of,'€ Lepangkari said.

Get together: The members of Rindu Sejahtera women'€™s group in East Penfui of Central Kupang gather at their headquarters at the house of co-founder Bernardine Venti Sebaat. JP/Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak
Get together: The members of Rindu Sejahtera women'€™s group in East Penfui of Central Kupang gather at their headquarters at the house of co-founder Bernardine Venti Sebaat. JP/Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak

'€œThey expect to earn some money by the end of the month to send to their family,'€ he says. '€œUnder the formal procedure, they have to wait to four months to start work and another five to eight months without wages until they pay back all their expenses to the agents.'€

Lepangkari says that illegal workers from Belu typically leave the country via Sumatra or Nunukan, East Kalimantan, paying bribes for new identity and family cards with false birth dates and address to obtain passports.

In Malaysia, they can easily shift employers during their first eight months in search of a quick paycheck, sacrificing their documents and taking the risk of being a fugitive.

These people are typically lured by neighbors or relatives who have entered Malaysia multiple times or who have already relocated to there. There are also many cases of extortion upon the workers'€™ return.

Some unscrupulous agents target young girls, paying Rp 1 million (US$75) in uang sirih pinang to parents as '€œcomfort'€ money. '€œSirih pinang'€, or betel chewing, is a local custom where the elders offer a concoction of betel leaves, areca nuts and limestone paste to greet guests.

As the result of this condition, which has continued for decades, Belu is among the top regencies for cases of people trafficking and physical abuse.

The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) and Manpower Minister Hanif Dhakiri had said that the NTT province was at the emergency level of human trafficking and called on the government to tighten monitoring on migration.

At work: Bernardine Venti Sebaat (center) is flanked by Rindu Sejahtera members in the group'€™s kailyard. JP/Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak
At work: Bernardine Venti Sebaat (center) is flanked by Rindu Sejahtera members in the group'€™s kailyard. JP/Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak

'€œThere is still no mechanism to prevent our sons and daughters from coaxing that led into human trafficking,'€ said Wiltson Rondo, chair of NTT'€™s Commission V on social welfare.

The lucky ones, said Fatima, can save enough to remodel their houses after three or more contracts as temporary menial workers at oil palm plantations or house helpers in Malaysia.

'€œThere are more who are deported or who leave unpaid entangled in debts,'€ said Fatima, the chair of a community-based organization focusing on the welfare of migrant workers and their families.

To alleviate the problem, the Tifa Foundation NGO and the Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI) have been working since 2012 on the Poverty Reduction Through Safety in Migration program to empower migrant workers and their families '€” and to improve the local economy to eliminate the need to work abroad.

Funded by the Australian government, the program helps meet people'€™s basic needs for justice, economic growth and information at the village level.

A pilot initiative covered 50 villages in Belu, Kupang, Melaka and East Flores regencies.

Program manager Nani Vindanita Ekasari said that the program provided paralegal and para-planner training to residents, who would then counsel would-be migrant workers and their families.

Para-planners also helped set up simple community banking systems through arisan (social gatherings), while advising migrant worker families on how to spend or invest their money wisely.

'€œThe program aims to alleviate poverty by helping migrant workers make the best decision for themselves and their families,'€ Nani said.

'€œThe program is tailored for community-based activities that involve the authorities to ensure a greater impact, which might [in turn] affect other people outside the group '€” and even neighboring villages not included in the program.'€

In the two years since the program started, there have been significant changes. Paralegal consultants have helped residents to file a host of mistreatment or abuse reports and resolved 295 of the cases.

Para-planners also connected migrant workers with state banks in NTB. In Belu, they helped ink deals between microfinance institution, state banks and the social wing of the Atambua Catholic diocese '€” a local partner of the Tifa Foundation '€” to provide access to community groups.

Each group runs cooperatives and home industries, producing traditional woven clothes, mattresses or snacks. Some even run auto garages.

'€œIf what we do here right now can be further expanded more, there will be no need for either of us to leave our hometowns to work,'€ Fatima said.

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